ATI All-In-Wonder PCI Express X600 Pro

Article Index

The All-In-Wonder X600 Pro - Closer Inspection

The All-In-Wonder X600 Pro

Elegant

Looking at the card, it seems that the entire design seems to have been streamlined when compared to previous AIW cards. Built around the X600 Pro VPU, the All-In-Wonder X600 Pro's core was clocked at 400MHz. Additionally, the All-In-Wonder is equipped with 256MB of Hynix DDR memory set to run at 600MHz. When we cross-reference the memory on the Hynix website, we find that the modules are rated for 600MHz, meaning our overclocking expectations will be low in the memory department.

Being purely a PCIe solution, the X600 sports much improved bandwidth potential over AGP. The main advantages to PCIe over AGP is with PCIe 16X there is 4GB/s bandwidth in either direction (8GB total) across 16 lanes, compared to AGP8X which has 2.1GB/s. This means there is a higher threshold before the bandwidth can become saturated with PCIe. So, for example, you can be recording video via one of the card's inputs while viewing a DVD movie and not encounter any issues. Typically, we tend to think of performance advantages from a gaming/benchmarking perspective, but as you can see, the benefits of PCIe reach further than just gaming.

The connector configuration with the All-In-Wonder X600 Pro is certainly different than what we are used to seeing. In fact, this layout is reminiscent of the All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro which we reviewed in 2003, the first All-In-Wonder to support dual-monitor configurations. But that is where the similarities end. With the X600 Pro AIW, ATI consolidated all of the outputs and inputs, less the monitor connections, into a single dongle, including the antenna connections. This makes for a clean layout, and generally easier access to these connections since direct access to the rear of the card is not needed. Now, if you ever need to work with the connections, simply grab the dongle to see which one you need without having to see the rear of the card for port labelling and such.